Lee: Playwright in Austin, Texas.

Hello again everyone. As always, I continue to develop the world I draw creative ideas from. If you're interested in accessing my blog, send me an email address so I can add you to the readers list. If you're interested in collaborating or just have an idea you are interested in bouncing off me, jus...

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Jim Sawyer

12 years ago

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I have FCP 7, Sony Vegas Pro 11, Avid Media Composer 5.5 and Premiere CS 5. (I teach editing and edit for a living.) What editor is best? It depends on how well you know how to use it. A poor edit system in great editor’s hands can produce a master piece. The best edit system in the world will not make up for training, skill and creativity. For projects that need to be done fast, news and commercials etc. I prefer Vegas. It has a quicker, friendlier, user interface. It's easier for new editors to learn and it cost less to purchase. It is the best purchase price for what it will do. It's much more popular in Europe than the US. However, if you want to freelance on other folks systems you might also want to learn FCP. Most systems are selected by bean counters or other non-editors. They all seem to think FCP is the best choice. The back end it a bit thin so if you want to interface it with other systems you might want to look at Avid. If it's a stand alone editor it's great. Media Composer would be next on my list; it will do more than most editors are capable of doing. It's a bit high in price and had a big learning curve but it is very powerful, especially if you want to attach it to a big server system and interface it with other edit/graphic systems. For some long form that needs a lot of color correction or other processing, and that I need to transfer the full project to the client, FCP works well. Basic editing is easy to learn. To get in depth it has a big learning curve and requires a lot of work and training. It’s slow, big renders in HD can take days unless you have big processor power, and requires just the right hardware and firmware to get the most out of it, but with some editors it forces them to take their time and that can be a good thing. It has a fairly good back end but often requires a lot of aftermarket add-on software that sometimes don't work well especially if you are trying to interface with systems like Dalet or other real time systems. Everyone thinks FCP is the number one. Frankly I am not that impressed. Forget X. I have not opened Premiere in several months. Nuf said. The interface is clunky and it has a huge learning curve for new editors, Also it cost too much.